Welcome to Ancestry! The purpose of this worksheet is to help you get familiar with the capabilities of www.ancestry.com. If you get stuck, please ask for help. You will not be turning this in, so feel free to use white space for other notes as needed. 1. If you have not yet linked your FamilySearch and Ancestry accounts, please refer to the article FamilySearch Integration on Ancestry and follow the steps under Activating a free LDS-Ancestry subscription. You can check to make sure your accounts are linked by clicking on your name/username in the top right hand corner of Ancestry.com, choosing Your Account, and checking what s written in the Subscriptions box. It should say LDS-Ancestry Membership. Were you able to activate your LDS-Ancestry Membership? YES NO The first page we ll explore is the HOME section. Navigate here by clicking the HOME button along the top menu bar. 2. This will be personalized to your account and includes important information found elsewhere on the site (like your tree and a search box). Scroll down until you see My Shoebox. When you find a record on the website that you want to save, but you don t want to (or can t) save it to a specific person on a tree, you can save it to your Shoebox to keep track of it. Do you have anything in your Shoebox right now? YES NO When you click on this button, it will show you a list of trees you currently have on your account. For LDS users, there s also the option Import tree from FamilySearch, which will automatically transfer the first four generations of your FamilySearch tree into Ancestry. Now we ll move to the TREES section. 1
3. If you haven t done so yet, click on Import tree from FamilySearch and follow the directions to finish the process. Much of this worksheet will be spent exploring this tree. What did you name your FamilySearch tree? Select your tree by clicking TREES from the top menu and clicking on your tree. You should see your family tree represented with several connected rectangular boxes. Take a few minutes to explore this page. Read through the Navigating a Family Tree article for more specific info on what the buttons mean and do. 4. Refer to the image above to change the tree view between the following: 1) Pedigree view: Displays the tree horizontally, with the home person on the left side. 2) Family view: Displays the tree vertically, with the home person at the bottom. Which of these views displays siblings? After exploring your tree, choose a person in your tree and view their PROFILE. This is done by clicking a person s name, then clicking either the PROFILE button or their name again. 5. The profile page contains four main sections. Please click on each of these and match them to their descriptions: A. Lifestory A collection of media that has been attached to the person B. Facts A list of possible record matches to review about the person C. Gallery Contains facts, sources, and family members of the person D. Hints Displays short sketch of life and chronological main events The Search, Tools, and Edit buttons in the right hand corner are extremely helpful. Search will take you to the Search section, automatically inputting all of the person s information in the 2
search fields. This way of searching is VERY convenient and quicker than going through the SEARCH section. Keep this in mind in the future. 6. Click on the TOOLS button and fill in the blanks below using the menu list. Please read their descriptions to become familiar with them. The bolded ones are particularly helpful View View View Duplicate Save to Connect Show Tools Switches to the Tree view with the ancestor as the main person A way to take notes about an ancestor, visible only to you Add comments about an ancestor, visible to others when ancestor is deceased and tree is public Combines information and sources between two individuals on your family tree (better than deleting) Allows you to save individual to another tree Gives you the option of printing the individual s Profile page Lets you connect with other Ancestry users who are researching the same individual Allows you to show the tools directly on the Profile page instead of just in the Tools menu 7. Now click the EDIT button. Quick Edit is very important to know, because it is how you can edit vital information about a person. Click there now. Which of the following is not an option to edit here? o First, Middle, & Last Name o Gender o Birth Date / Place o Marriage Date / Place o Death Date / Place 8. Now select Edit Relationships. This section is extremely helpful when adding or deleting other family members or choosing a preferred relationship (with multiple spouses, for example). Besides Biological, how many other types of relationship can you select here? When using an LDS Account, and when you re on the Profile page of a deceased ancestor, you will see another button with the FamilySearch logo to the left of the Search button. This is how individuals are linked between Ancestry and Family Search. More information about this can be found in the 3
FamilySearch Integration on Ancestry article under the last section, Linking individuals between Ancestry and FamilySearch. 9. Find a deceased ancestor on your tree and navigate to their Profile page to find this button. Click it. You will see one of two things: 1) CONNECT PERSON: This is the first step to link individuals between Ancestry and FamilySearch. The system will automatically come up with best matches, and you can compare these against the information from Ancestry to find the right one. If you want to double check on your FamilySearch account, the FamilySearch ID (FSID) is also provided. Most of the time, the system will find the right one. However, if it doesn t, go back to FamilySearch and find the FamilySearch ID of the person you want to link to. Then, on this page, select Find match by FamilySearch ID, search using the ID, and link the profiles. There is also an option ADD TO FAMILYSEARCH if you have not yet added the person on your FamilySearch tree. 2) FAMILYSEARCH MENU: Refer to FamilySearch Integration on Ancestry for detailed explanations about this menu. Which of these two options did you initially see when you clicked on the FamilySearch logo? 10. Once your ancestor is linked to FamilySearch, select the button Compare person on FamilySearch. The left hand side of this page displays the information and sources in your FamilySearch tree. The right hand side displays the information and sources in your Ancestry tree. It s a good idea to save sources in both trees. To do so, scroll down to the Sources (if there are any). If you see a source that is in only one tree, click the check box to copy it to the other tree. (Sources that are checked will be copied from one place to another. Facts that are checked will override the information in the other tree.) Scroll down to the end and click SAVE CHANGES when you are done. 4
Were you able to compare a person on your Ancestry and FamilySearch trees? YES NO 11. You should now be on your ancestor s Profile page. (If not, please navigate there now.) We will now make our way into the SEARCH section. Do this now by clicking the SEARCH button in the top right corner of the person s Profile page. Once you do this, you will now see along the top menu that you re in the SEARCH section. Who are you currently searching for on this page? How many results were found?* *Answer should be showing underneath All results for [your ancestor s name] as Results 1- [number] of [number of results] 12. Please refer to the How to Search Ancestry article for specific information about searching (including tips and tricks). For now, be aware of the Edit Search button on the left hand side. This is a very important section as it allows you to experiment with information in your attempt to find records for your specific ancestor. Play around with adding or removing information, using alternate spellings, changing the collection focus, and using the Exact feature. Click on Edit Search now. If you only see a few simple input boxes, click Show more options. Scroll down until you see the bottom SEARCH button (orange). Above it you will see the option to select which categories to search on Ancestry. What are these four categories? Historical & Publications Family & Maps 5
Ancestry s DNA section features information about their DNA product, something that must be purchased but can provide valuable information to assist in family history work. Lastly, please make good use of the HELP section, especially the Support Center. There is a wealth of information to be found there. 13. Navigate to the Support Center. In the search bar, type in tips for finding records and click Search. Choose one of these articles that is the most relevant to you and browse through it. Which article did you look at? Like FamilySearch, Ancestry also has a mobile app that is very user friendly and helpful. You can learn more in the EXTRAS section by clicking ios & Android Apps. Congratulations! You made it through all the major sections of Ancestry! We hope you found this worksheet helpful in learning how to navigate the website. The more you use it, the easier it will become. As always, please reach out if you ever have questions! 6